Toulouse is a major character in Disney's 1970 animated feature film The Aristocats. He is an orange furred kitten, who is the oldest son of Duchess and the brother of Marie and Berlioz.
Background
Personality
Toulouse wishes to meet tough alley cats and often tries to appear tough. He is known for puffing up and attempting to hiss when trying to show how tough he is. Toulouse is fairly laid-back and easygoing otherwise, being the most playful of the three kittens, despite being the eldest of the three. He aspires to be a painter and practices his painting daily.
Physical appearance
Toulouse has green eyes and long orange fur, with a lighter orange stomach. He also wears a large blue ribbon around his neck that is tied similarly to a bow tie and straw hat. Being a kitten, he's fairly small but also seems to be a bit older than his two siblings.
Role in the film
Toulouse is first seen alongside his siblings and mother, as they are returning from a carriage ride with their wealthy, loving owner, Madame Bonfamille, who intends to give them their fortune, much to Edgar the butler’s jealousy. Believing that he might die before the cats, Edgar comes up with a plan to get rid of the cats so that he could inherit Madame's vast fortune. After the ride, Toulouse briefly gets into a fight with Marie and Berlioz about who can go through the cat door first, scoffing at his sister's protest that she is a lady and should, therefore, get to go first. Duchess scolds them for fighting and sends them on to their lessons. While Berlioz and Marie are having a music lesson, Toulouse paints a picture of Edgar, the butler. After finishing, he joins in the music lesson, with his paws still covered in paint.
Later, Toulouse has dinner, unknowingly drinking milk that Edgar laced with sleeping pills. That night, while the cats are sleeping, Edgar kidnaps them and drops them off in the French countryside. Toulouse briefly awakens when Edgar checks on them, and when he awakens again, he realizes that Edgar must’ve left them there. Duchess and the other kittens are in disbelief.
The next morning, Toulouse and his family meet Thomas O'Malley, an alley cat who offers to help them go back to Paris. Toulouse is impressed, as he had always wanted to meet an alley cat. Thomas first gets the cats on a milk truck bound for Paris, but the truck driver chases them off after he spots them drinking the milk. They decide to walk home, and Toulouse leads the kittens across a railway bridge, pretending to be a train. However, they are forced to hide under the bridge when a real train comes.
After a long walk, Toulouse and the others end up in Paris. Thomas leads them to an abandoned building where they can spend the night. During their time there, they meet Scat Cat and his gang of Alley Cats. The next morning, Toulouse is able to return home, but he and the kittens realize that the cat door has been locked. They start meowing but are all captured by Edgar. Edgar locks them in an old oven, while he prepares to mail the cats to Timbuktu, Mali. This proves Toulouse’s point made earlier in the film that Edgar had indeed been involved, only for Berlioz to tell him to shut up when he rubs it in their face. They send their friend Roquefort the mouse to find Thomas so he can help. Thanks to Thomas, as well as Scat Cat's gang, Toulouse and his family is rescued, and Edgar is mailed to Timbuktu in their place. Toulouse is then seen with Duchess and his siblings, posing for a picture with Thomas, who has been adopted by Madame. Later, he attends the opening of Madame's foundation for the alley cats of Paris.
Disney Parks
Disneyland Paris
Toulouse, along with his brother Berlioz, oddly never appeared in "live" form at any of the Disney theme parks until February 2013 in Disneyland Paris. They have since made various meet-and-greet appearances during special occasions.
Tokyo Disney Resort
Toulouse along with Berlioz also made their debut at Tokyo Disneyland in the former daytime parade Happiness is Here Parade in 2013 as part of the park's 30th Anniversary. Toulouse appears on The Aristocats float alongside his brother and sister on a giant piano with Roquefort hanging on top. He alongside his two siblings currently make daily appearances in the Disney Harmony in Color Parade to honor the resort's 40th Anniversary.
Toulouse also does meet and greet appearances at both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Sometimes alongside Berlioz and his sister Marie.
Shanghai Disney Resort
Toulouse also appears at Shanghai Disneyland for the park's daytime parade Mickey's Storybook Express and a daytime show near Fantasyland alongside Marie and Berlioz.
Disneyland Resort
Toulouse and Berlioz also made their U.S. debut at Disneyland in mid-November 2019 as part of a Christmas Dance Party in Tomorrowland alongside Marie.
Walt Disney World Resort
While Toulouse alongside Berlioz have yet to make live appearances at Walt Disney World, the "Aristocrepes" stand at Disney Springs, which sells crepes, features silhouettes of Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz on the stand's logo. At the Disney's Riviera Resort, Marie alongside Toulouse and Berlioz are presented on some murals inside the resort.
Gallery
Trivia
- Toulouse was named after a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France called Toulouse. Also, given his artistic element, it is very likely that his name is an homage to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
- Toulouse resembles a younger version of his eventual stepfather, Thomas O'Malley, who is dark orange with white front paws, and Toulouse is completely light orange.
- Toulouse's Italian name is "Matisse", like the painter Henri Matisse.
- Toulouse's nickname "Tiger" could also allude to his personality trying to prove his toughness.
- Toulouse was originally going to be named "Dopey" (after the dwarf from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) as seen in one of the earlier character designs for the kittens.
- Toulouse has never once been called his real name by Thomas, who calls him by the nickname "Tiger".
- Toulouse can be known for "Tu-Tu" in a few of the books for short.
- In the 2012 book The Aristocats: The Runaway Kitten (known as Marie på rymmen in Sweden),[2] Marie befriends a wild kitten named "Leo" who resembles Toulouse. Leo has the same fur color as Toulouse, but with messier fur and has brown spots around his fur and right eyelid. He also wears a handkerchief around his neck but the same color as Toulouse.
- Another The Aristocats book that was part of "Disney Wonderful World of Reading" collection is Les Aristochats et l'oncle Antoine (The Aristocats meet Uncle Antoine) released in 2007, where Marie alongside her brothers meet Uncle Antoine. An adventurer who has fabulous stories to tell them, with Toulouse dreaming on going on an adventure with him one day. However, Uncle Antonine has some secrets that he prefers to keep with the kittens.
- In some books, Toulouse is misidentified for his brother Berlioz and vice versa.
- In the storyboards of the cancelled series The Aristocats: The Animated Series, Toulouse is depicted with ear piercings on one of his ears.
- Toulouse, along with Berlioz and Marie, starred in a 2022 picture book and graphic novel called The Aristokittens by Jennifer Castle. The series involves Toulouse, Marie, and Berlioz reopening an abandoned cafe made for animals called Parisian critter café. The first two books were published on April 19, 2022, with the third book published on October 10, 2022.
- In The Aristokittens graphic novels, Toulouse's painting skills have improved after the events of the film. He becomes Parisian critter cafe's lead artist and designer and even worked on the cafe's mural.
- Toulouse later appeared in the 2023 Disney short Once Upon a Studio.
References
- ↑ "Uncle Antoine's Visit", The Aristocats books
- ↑ The Runaway Kitten cover image
